Good morning/good day (to those of you in other parts of the world)I am really thinking I want to add the sail kit to my PA, and wonder if any of you guys might be considering or have done so yourself. I live on and close to several large reservoirs I fish and will fish and I am thinking the sail would allow me to go places I am not comfortable peddling to and back.Any one care to give me their experiences or opinion .

I live in Tidewater area of Virginia and I have the sail kit. It was a ball to sail. I will probably change to a sailing rudder if they have it available for the PA. I did have the stern pull out of the water a little on a good gust. Needs to be a little longer in the rudder. I can't wait to see "tracking" changes to the new hull.. Even though I won't be able to afford one any time soon...... There's a learning curve to steering. Over control is "normal" for first few uses. Now that I've had it out in some "testy waters" and swift currents, I'm getting quite comfortable with it's handling. As for sailing, the stability is good enough. The sail will dump air if it gets to picking up too much... and easy enough to let the main sheet out to reduce it. I was able to sail for well over an hour and able to get to where I wanted. I doesn't go up wind too well but it's not a sport sailing boat either.

Being able to tack back and forth in order to go "upwind" would be important to me...were you able to tack at all?I have sailed in boats several times in my life and loved it, and so look forward to being able to do it in my own boat, albiet; somewhat small boat.I'm also interested if you can take the sail down and stow it somewhere reasonably convient, ie; hanging on the outboard? I want to be able to fish when I get to where I am going, you know what I mean?Thanks for your post, I'll look for your answer soon?

Ron, the PA is a fun and easy sailer, especially if you're not in a hurry. I agree, it sideslips a bit upwind, but tacks very readily. A small amount of pedaling while beating improves the tracking and upwind progress.

There is plenty of room for sail storage -- you can just lash it to the rails when not used.

With a little practice, setting up and breaking down the sail is easy if you have the mainsheet already rigged. I keep it separate from the sail and use a snap hook to attach it when needed. I also use a micro-block at the rear padeye for easier sail handling. The sailing forum has lots of other general rigging tips for the Hobie sail if you use the search feature.

Sorry I didn't come back sooner to answer your question but I stow the rolled up sail just as seen in the post before. I use a couple of the "bungie ball" things to secure it. I've not had an issue with it yet. For quick get away I just roll it and lay it beside the seat then take care of when things settle down. The pedaling through a sluggish tack is necessary sometimes, but that's the beauty of it... shouldn't find yourself "in irons"..... Also when it's not quite possible to go in the exact direction I might want to go because of sideslip, I also pedal some just to help things along.. Good luck.

No way to cut and paste photo's without having to use a 3rd party? I understand about posting of the url, as that is what Jmeier did to show his new trailer, but I'd like to be able to put the photo's into the post like our friend in Louisiana...yak-a-lou did and many of you others as well.

With regard to sailing..since I don't have a sail yet for my PA, if the wind is reasonably strong, I open the front hatch when I am running with the wind and it works remarkably well as a sail...

Ron, I'm sort of a computer retard. To post a picture, I shrink it, rename it, go to Imageshack, select and resize it and copy the URL. Like magic, it turns into a picture! With a little practice it goes pretty fast. If there is a better way, perhaps someone else will enlighten us.

Your hatch-sail sounds like an excellent use of resources -- the PA is even more versatile than I realized!

I've had reasonably good luck sailing my PA. I thought it ran into the wind pretty well, considering that it's not really a sailing hull. The only weak point, actually, is sailing downwind. With a boom on the bottom of the sail, you can't really trap much air/wind. I've been thinking about adding a slip boom type of thing but don't want to do anything that makes furling the sail more difficult. Just need more time to work the system out.

I have sailed a lot of small boats, but not a PA. I would think that when heading upwind you would want to stop pedaling and leave the flippers in the fully extended position. This would give you more "keel" with which to bite upwind. Seems like every time you retract the pedals back toward the hull you would slip further downwind - no?

Also, when running straight downwnd, how do you compensate for the extra force on the side of the PA where your boom is? Not an issue with a jib or even lateen rigged sail, but the way the PA sail is set, I would think that this would have a tendancy to tip you to that side. Do you have to reactively counterbalance by shifting your weight frequently?

I would think that when heading upwind you would want to stop pedaling and leave the flippers in the fully extended position. This would give you more "keel" with which to bite upwind. Seems like every time you retract the pedals back toward the hull you would slip further downwind - no?

It certainly seems so, but it doesn't appear to work out that way in practice. On the contrary, Mirage Drive boats seem to track better with the Drive in use than in the fins-down position.

One must remember that pedaling augments the forward speed component. Assuming the same absolute side slip per minute, doubling your forward distance traveled (per minute) reduces your side slip angle substantially, so your track is improved.

There are other factors as well. More forward speed means less tendency for the keel to stall. This can offset a less efficient keel angle. The rudder also has more authority with speed, and it plays a role in tracking as well.

Keep in mind that the Mirage Drive is not a particularly efficient "keel" to begin with, so the loss of "keel" isn't missed as much; the overall boat shape also makes a contribution to the keel effect.

Finally, as the boat heels, keel effect diminishes, but not so with an active Mirage Drive, as one of the fins is always passing through the vertical position.

These influences can be readily demonstrated with the Adventure, which can be sailed with a daggerboard, fins, both or neither -- easy to make comparisons.